2019 has been yet another year of change, innovation and growth for Supply Chain. In last year’s CSCMP State of Logistics Report, we reported that since 2008, Logistics costs rose 54%, an average annual increase of $57 billion dollars. In 2018 alone, it increased by $167 billion! Conversely, since 1988, as a percent of GDP, Logistics expense went from 11.5% down to 8%, a reduction of 30%.

 

These statistics paint of picture of Supply Chain that gives back to the economy. Today’s successful leaders are consumers of relevant and meaningful information which translates to decisions, better decisions. As just one example, the ongoing discussions and negotiations around trade requires one to judge implications to inventory, costs, and of course service to customers.

 

That means you need to keep a strategic eye on macroeconomic trends, advancements in technology and consumer expectations which have the potential to become either rallying points or disruptors to your business.

 

Supply chains still roll on despite recessions, natural disasters or border issues. We are the undisputed champions of enabling global trade.

 

Innovation knocks infrequently, so you’ve got to consciously open the door and welcome it in. Consider the potential impacts of blockchain, artificial intelligence and deep machine learning, drone technology and all of the other tools seemingly being created on a daily basis. I say potential impacts because they only matter if you’re able to incorporate those into your daily operations. Having the ability to discern what matters is increasingly important. Assembling the best team has never been more important. Being a Supply Chain leader requires the ability to focus part of your brain on the future and the other part on routing freight, for example – two ends of the spectrum, from the strategic to the tactical. That’s a rare skillset, as most people tend to be either strategic or tactical by nature. So, you either need to be both or hire both, and that leads us to the requirement to grow or assemble talent.

 

Supply Chain is still, after all, a people business. All of the whiz-bang trends and technologies are great, but people are greater. If you line up a continuum with the organization on one end and a single employee on the other, my advice is to focus squarely on the middle, which is your supply chain team. If your team is high functioning, if everyone understands their specific role, is trained to perform it and collaborates effectively, then the company benefits and the individual benefits.

What do our emerging supply chain leaders think of our industry? What do they value, and how much does it differ from previous generations?
 
The Council of Supply Chain Management Professionals (CSCMP) and Penske Logistics set out to answer these questions earlier this year when they surveyed more than 100 young professionals working in the supply chain – all under the age of 30 and either professional or student members of CSCMP. All in all, young professionals say they are satisfied with their career, describing the supply chain as a challenging and rewarding field that offers plenty of room for growth and advancement. Most also say they work in a supportive environment that offers a competitive salary and benefits and allows them to pursue a financially comfortable living.
 
Learn more about the 2019 CSCMP Young Professionals Survey results and what supply chain professionals under 30 are looking for in terms of their career opportunities.
 
Job satisfaction, trended more positively in 2019 with 72% of respondents describing their pay as “enough to live on” this year as compared to 87% of respondents in 2017. The data shows what’s most important for companies to focus on today in order to appeal to the young talent looking for a career in the supply chain.

 

At first blush, it seems like blockchain’s distributed ledger technology could be the perfect solution to many of the supply chain’s problems. But before companies can reap the benefits of this exciting new technology, they must be thoughtful about where to apply it and how to overcome a few key stumbling blocks.

 

BLOCKCHAIN absolutely seems like the technology innovation supply chain has been waiting for. Why? Well, supply chains are heavily distributed and heterogeneous. No single company “has a supply chain.” Instead, everyone is a member of a highly complex and ever-evolving supply chain network.

 

In this type of network, you are highly dependent on others: your customers and suppliers, your warehouse and logistics providers, your transport carriers, your brokers and trade banks, your contract manufacturers, your channel partners and distributors. The orchestration of supply chain planning and execution activities across all those partners is paramount, and sharing information effectively is the lubricant that creates a well-oiled supply chain. Currently, however, that orchestration and information sharing is primarily done through emails, spreadsheets and messaging. Why? Because data is scattered everywhere. It’s caged in the silos of each partner’s systems, redundant and in different representations. Everyone is looking at their own “truth,” and data integration between partners is feared like the plague because it is so complex. Collaboration across company boundaries is therefore the undisputed, No.1 unsolved business problem in supply chain.

Echo Global Logistics is a leading provider of technology-enabled transportation and supply chain management solutions. Using their proprietary technology to analyze data from their multimodal network of more than 50,000 transportation providers, they serve the logistics needs of clients in truckload, partial truckload, less-than-truckload, intermodal, expedited, small parcel, domestic air, and international transportation management.

 

Education: Northeastern Illinois University, BS in Marketing

 

Company/Title: Weiman Products/Director of Distribution & Inventory Management

 

When and why did you join CSCMP?
I joined in December of 2014. I felt I was lacking in my professional networking and education.

 

What advice do you have for new CSCMP members on how they can maximize their membership value?
Go to the cscmp.org website on a regular basis. It is constantly updated and has great information!

 

How did you get into supply chain management/logistics?
I started out working as a warehouse temporary for Baxter Healthcare in 1985. If you work hard, there are opportunities for growth in an operations-related field. We can't get enough good people.

 

Describe your job in a tweet (i.e. 140 characters).
Balancing multi-site international warehousing, distribution, and manufacturing inventory management all in a day's work.

 

Since the smartphone became an essential part of daily life, retail companies have been challenged by the real-time demands of hyper connectivity. The industry faces a hard reality that aging systems often can’t keep pace with what consumers want, and even just one bad shopper experience can have a significant impact on loyalty and brand perception.

In an eye-opening position paper titled “Why The Retail Industry is Ready for Blockchain,” researchers from the Auburn University RFID Lab outline how to drive meaningful innovation in the supply chain, and encourages the industry to learn from the progression of technological advancements during the past decade. The researchers believe that blockchain, if applied to a foundation built on RFID and GS1 Standards, can help the industry overcome challenges that have made the supply chain sometimes frustratingly costly and slow.

Simply put, advanced technology can better enable a future state where the seamless sharing of trusted data is the norm.

The LMI index is 54.4 in the November 2019, reading, essentially equal (though down very slightly at -0.4) from October 2019. This is the lowest reading for the overall index in the three-year history of the LMI.

 

This is down significantly (-12.6) from this time a year ago, when it read in at 67.0. We have seen low scores for the LMI throughout the summer and fall, with the lowest eight scores in the history of the index coming in the last eight months.
 

Get the latest issue of the Logistics Manager Index (LMI) for the full report.